By Alan Riach Professor of Scottish Literature at Glasgow University
Essay
Kathleen MacInnes plays Kay Matheson, who helped bring the Stone of Destiny back to Scotland in 1950, in the film An Ceasnachadh/Interrogation of a Highland Lass DUNCAN Ban MacIntyre’s last visit to Ben Dorain on September 19, 1802 prompted the following day his composition, “Last Leave-taking of the Bens”, a moving farewell to the mountains, especially Ben Dorain, which his 18th-century poetry sang of so piercingly. It’s an old man’s elegy recollecting the energies of youth, the chase of the greyhound quickening as its owner’s breath becomes more laboured.